page_title: Prehistoric beads in the Philippines
section_title: Southeast Asian Bead Trade
hierarchical_section_title: Prehistoric beads in the Philippines / Southeast Asian Bead Trade
caption_attribution_description: English: 3 Undated wound glass beads, one translucent green annular (diameter 10mm) and two translucent orange/brown globular (both diameters 9mm). All of uncertain date.
context_page_description: The Philippines is an archipelago located in Southeast Asia and consists of 7,641 islands. Prehistoric beads are among the most significant resources deriving from the human past. They are artifacts that inform individuals about archaeological records. Beads play a vital role in Asian lives, since they were utilized as human markers to indicate a territory; moreover, prehistoric beads were significant for ancestors as well as the people who occupied the identical territory. For instance, if beads are perished or destroyed, they can be recovered archaeologically due to their durability, which allows for the preservation of these resources. Furthermore, several of the decorative pieces and tools that they possess, as well as their culture, seem to reflect this maritime characteristic. Due to the fact that beads are transportable, compact in size, and appealing to the eye, they can essentially be discovered all over the world. Tools such as choppers made of shells as well as decorative pieces like shell beads are common in Southeast Asian archaeological records due to this characteristic.
context_section_description: Glover and Henderson place the date of glass bead trade in Southeast Asia at no later than 400 BCE. Alastair Lamb states that the most common type of bead for around that time was the Indo-Pacific beads. According to Francis, the beads could be named “Indo Pacific Monochrome Drawn Glass Beads”. These Indo-Pacific beads can be found to occur everywhere in Southeast Asia.  
  Other than these, there could be found at that time, Chinese beads (which were traded generally either by non-Han Chinese, other Southeast Asians, or Westerners depending on the time period), Muslim beads, Java beads, and Indian beads. Clues as to the nature of bead trade in South East Asia could be found in the Pandanan Shipwreck, placing the history of the finds here to about the 15th century CE. It can be seen from the shipwreck that tradeware from Vietnam, Thailand and China were being passed around to other Southeast Asian nations. Early trade centers such as Sungai Mas in Malaysia give us a clue as to where trade of beads may have originated from or where they developed. In fact, studies by Cayron point to the fact that the beads found in the Pandanan shipwreck actually originated from Sungai Mas. Trading routes taken were generally inland to avoid pirates and thus, pillaging of their cargo. Sarkar discusses Wheatley's eleven main trade routes: "The three Pagodas between Moulmein and Tavoy, and the three Cedis route; the Tenasserim River route in Burma; the Kra Isthmus route; the Takuapa River route in Thailand; the Trang River rout in Thailand; the Kedah-Patani route; the Perak-Petani route; the Kelantan-Malacca route by way of the Panarikan in Malaysia; the Pahang-Malacca route by way of the Panarikan; the Sembrong route; and the Bernam-Pahang route."
caption: Figure of three wound beads that could be connected by a wire
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